Women Have Been Concentrating on Playing Up the Same Feature for 100 Years

In honor of Maybelline's big 100-year birthday this year, the folks at Fashionista took a trip down memory lane and looked into the brand's history and the approach they took with their ads. The main take-away: It's always been about eyes, eyes, eyes. Yes, women have been focused on playing up their lids and lashes with makeup for a century and this early ad from the 1920s helps prove it: It makes sense, then, that Maybelline began with mascara—a product they're still know for today. According to the piece, "In 1915, a young woman named Mabel Williams mixed coal dust with Vaseline and used it to beef up her lashes after singing them off in an accident. Her brother Tom Lyle Williams took the idea and ran with it, producing a product—sans coal—commercially." The result was a product called Lash-Brow-Ine, which he sold via mail order under the company name Maybelline (Mabel + Vaseline). Later they began selling it in cake form with a separate brush. Then in 1971, it launched the pink-and-green Great Lash Mascara, which remains a favorite now, thanks to its clump-free formula.

In honor of Maybelline's big 100-year birthday this year, the folks at Fashionista took a trip down memory lane and looked into the brand's history and the approach they took with their ads. The main take-away: It's always been about eyes, eyes, eyes. Yes, women have been focused on playing up their lids and lashes with makeup for a century and this early ad from the 1920s helps prove it:

It makes sense, then, that Maybelline began with mascara—a product they're still know for today. According to the piece, "In 1915, a young woman named Mabel Williams mixed coal dust with Vaseline and used it to beef up her lashes after singing them off in an accident. Her brother Tom Lyle Williams took the idea and ran with it, producing a product—sans coal—commercially." The result was a product called Lash-Brow-Ine, which he sold via mail order under the company name Maybelline (Mabel + Vaseline). Later they began selling it in cake form with a separate brush. Then in 1971, it launched the pink-and-green Great Lash Mascara, which remains a favorite now, thanks to its clump-free formula.